Fairphone and /e/ team up for a sustainable Google-free Android phone

For most individuals, Android is synonymous with Google and virtually inconceivable with out it. It’s an affiliation that some, together with ROM makers and even phone makers like Samsung, have been making an attempt to interrupt unsuccessfully for years. The latest state of affairs involving Huawei has solely bolstered the conception of how intricately tied the open supply Android platform is with Google’s proprietary software program. That’s why two firms are actually becoming a member of forces to create a phone that isn’t solely simply repairable but in addition freed from any proprietary Google product.

Though not precisely the modular phone of fantasies, Fairphone has lengthy been making telephones with modular elements to make them extra repair-friendly. The aim isn’t precisely to be a fancy hi-tech phone however one that’s extra sustainable and environment-friendly, lowering the quantity of e-waste that we produce from “throwaway” costly telephones.

The opposite half of this new duo is /e/, created by Gael Duval, founding father of one of many earliest Linux distributions. /e/ is simply of the few makes an attempt at making an attempt to create a utterly “de-Googled” Android system, one that’s primarily based on LineageOS (previously CyanogenMod) and makes use of the microG providers to let apps suppose there are nonetheless Google Play providers put in. /e/’s drawback, nonetheless, is that it has to settle for utilizing previous, present Android telephones.

That’s the place this “/e/OS Fairphone 3” partnership is available in, providing customers a new-ish Fairphone 3 that has /e/OS pre-installed so customers gained’t should do it themselves. Launched final 12 months, the Fairphone 3 has reasonable specs for a mid-range phone, operating on a Snapdragon 632 with 4GB of RAM and a 5.65-inch Full HD+ display screen. The attraction of this phone has at all times been its repairability however now followers may even get one which may fulfill their privateness issues over common Android firmware.

All of that can value you 479.90 EUR, roughly $520, out there for pre-order now. The phone in all probability gained’t attraction that a lot to common customers precisely because of the lack of Google Play Retailer and apps but it surely may tickle the flowery of extra privacy-conscious cellular customers.